


Sacrifice

by martianwahtney



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2019 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Trailer, Endgame, Gen, Soul Stone (Marvel), Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, based on the scene where they have the quantum suits on, endgame spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 18:41:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18212120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martianwahtney/pseuds/martianwahtney
Summary: Tony Stark visits Vormir alone.The Soul Stone demands a sacrifice.Tony insists he's sacrificed enough.The Stone puts him up for evaluation.Square: K4- Conflicting Oaths/Obligations





	Sacrifice

“The Stone requires a sacrifice,” the Stone Keeper rasped.  
  
Tony stood between the two towers.  
  
“I won’t sacrifice anyone to you,” Tony hissed to the sky. Behind him the Stone Keeper hissed.  
  
“I’ve given enough. I’ve sacrificed enough,”  
  
Tony squeezed his eyes shut, the metal suit creaked under his clenched fists. He’d gone to the edge of the universe to get the Stone. And now the Stone required a sacrifice that he could not give.  
  
“The world hangs in the balance and yet you offer no sacrifices to save it?” the Stone Keeper crooned.  
  
“There’s been enough sacrifices,” Tony said.  
  
There was a flash of orange. Tony found himself in an area with no distinguishable characteristics. Just… orange. He wondered if the Soul Stone had took him as a sacrifice.  
  
“It’s evaluating you,” said a voice Tony only ever heard in his nightmares.  
  
“Yinsen?” he whispered as he turned.  
  
He looked just as he had all those years ago in that god forbidden cave.  
  
“What a life you’ve led,” Yinsen said.  
  
Tony could only stare at him.  
  
“I don’t understand,”  
  
“The Soul Stone demands a sacrifice. You said you sacrificed enough. It’s evaluating,”  
  
“I’m sorry,” Tony said when he found that he had nothing else to say.  
  
“I’m not,” Yinsen said as he approached him.  
  
“I saw my family, and you? You didn’t waste a single second, did you?”  
  
Tony felt his breath catch, vision clouded with tears and he shook his head, trying to explain that he tried so hard to make Yinsen proud of him. Yinsen just smiled and placed his hand on Tony’s shoulder.  
  
“I know,” he said quietly. Tony nodded and scrubbed his hands over his eyes, trying to dispel the tears.  
  
“ _Do not cry, Sir. The Stone will keep you safe_ ,”  
  
Whatever resolve Tony had gathered shattered at the sound of JARVIS’s voice. He almost collapsed in on Yinsen. Yinsen just held him and let him collapse. Tony left out a shuddering breath and pulled together enough courage to turn and face the son Ultron took from him.  
  
JARVIS was beautiful and orange and alive.  
  
“J,” he whispered.  
  
_“Hello, Sir_ ,” JARVIS responded, his structure twisting and moving as he spoke.  
  
“I never got to tell you… how sorry I am that Ultron destroyed you that… that Vision-”  
  
“ _I never blamed you, Sir_ ,” JARVIS assured him.  
  
“ _Ultron was corrupted by the Mind Stone. There was nothing you could have done to prevent that_ ,”  
  
“I miss you,”  
  
“I miss you every single fucking day, J,”  
  
“ _As I you. You have done a wonderful job with my successor, even if she does let you get away with too much_ ,” JARVIS sassed.  
  
“She’s got a lot to figure out, J,” Tony responded.  
  
“ _I suppose_ ,”  
  
“Give her time, J. She’ll start pulling out your excuses,” Tony shot back.  
  
“ _She lets Dum-E have entirely too much fun_ ,”  
  
“He misses you,”  
  
JARVIS twisted, like an emotion had overtaken his interface.  
  
“ _I miss them very much, Sir_ ,”  
  
Tony nodded carefully.  
  
“ _When you return please let them know that I was always proud of them_ ,”  
  
Tony could only nod, overcome by the sudden notion that he wasn’t the only one who had lost JARVIS. He may have lost a son, but U and Butterfingers had lost their big brother, and Dum-E had lost a baby brother.  
  
“Did you program that sass in?” the voice was JARVIS but it wasn’t the AI. Tony closed his eyes and steeled himself to face Edwin Jarvis.  
  
“He got it from his namesake,” Tony responded.  
  
Jarvis smiled at that.  
  
“Hello Master Anthony,”  
  
“ _It’s an honor to officially meet you Mr. Jarvis_ ,”  
  
The man smiled at the creation named after him.  
  
“What are you doing here? Any of you?” Tony whispered.  
  
“You are in the Soul Stone,” Yinsen started, coming to stand next to Jarvis.  
  
“ _We are part of your soul, Sir_ ,”  
  
“Hence, us being here,”  
  
Who else would show? Yinsen, JARVIS, and Jarvis were some of the beings that had impacted Tony the most profoundly. But he still couldn’t help but wonder who else the Soul Stone would let him see.  
  
“Jarvis I never got to thank you for being a better father to me than Howard ever was,” Tony said quietly.  
  
“Master Anthony…” Jarvis paused for a moment.  
  
“I couldn’t have asked for a better son,”  
  
Tony squeezed his eyes shut, hands clenching into fists.  
  
“Thanks J,”  
  
He took a few deep breaths.  
  
“How much longer will this take?” he asked, opening his eyes to see that Jarvis, Yinsen, and JARVIS were still there.  
  
“Tired of us?” Yinsen teased.  
  
“No!”  
  
“I need the Stone. They’re the only way to stop Thanos. He wiped out half the world's population…”  
  
All he could hear was Peter’s voice. _I don’t want to go_.  
  
“Bambino,”  
  
She was the one person he never expected to see. For all his sins, he expected to see his mother in death, never before, and certainly not now.  
  
“Mamma,” he whispered.  
  
Maria Stark stood before him, all grace and beauty. For just a second he saw her bruised and bloody, dead in the car he always thought his father crashed.  
  
“Look at you mio caro,”  
  
“You never deserved it,” Tony said in a rush, not sure how long he had left in the Soul Stone, how long he had left to say all the things he wanted to say but never could.  
  
“None of it, not what Howard did, not that car wreck- mamma you never deserved-”  
  
Maria cupped his face lovingly.  
  
“You are my greatest love, Anthony,” she told him.  
  
“You always made me so proud to be your mamma,”  
  
She brushed away the stray tears that fell from his eyes.  
  
“ _I believe it’s almost time for us to go, Madam_ ,” JARVIS said to Maria.  
  
Maria stepped back from Tony to look at the orange interface. She took his hand and gave a soft squeeze.  
  
“I was always so impressed by everything you made,” she told him.  
  
“I’m sorry the last time I saw you I fought with Howard,” Tony whispered.  
  
“I didn’t even say goodbye to you mamma, I-” his emotions choked his voice.  
  
Maria kisses his cheek like she had in 1991.  
  
“Goodbye bambino,” she said, her hand slipping from his.  
  
“Bye mamma,” he whispered.  
  
“ _Not long now, Sir_ ,” JARVIS said as Maria twisted around him, delight taking over her features.  
  
“I don’t want you to go,”  
  
“We are not gone,” Yinsen assured him.  
  
“We are simply part of your soul, mio caro. You carry us with you always,” Maria promised.  
  
“I love you,” Tony said to them. To his mother, to his surrogate father, to the man that saved his life in many different ways, and of course to his son.  
  
The last thing he saw was Maria’s smile.  
  
Tony stood shakily, the horizon of Vormir lay before him. In the palm of the Iron Man suit was the Soul Stone, small and orange. Tony held it tight. One stone closer to ending Thanos. One stone closer to avenging the universe.

**Author's Note:**

> [i made myself teary eyed writing JARVIS](http://www.anthonystarhk.tumblr.com/)


End file.
